Sarah Guppy — the first woman to patent a bridge and the first to formally design one.

Engineer, inventor, campaigner, designer, reformer, writer, environmentalist and business woman – to name but eight. Born in Birmingham in 1770 – as the Industrial Revolution revved its engine – she moved to Bristol to marry merchant Samuel Guppy. Her other patents include a breakfast machine and an exercise bed. She had six children and married her second husband at the age of 66 – he was 31.

She also mentored young IK Brunel with his – winning – entry for that Clifton Bridge Competition.

2018 celebrates the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage and Year of Engineering: the perfect time for Sarah to tell her remarkable story.

Well known Bristol actor Kim Hicks plays Sarah, Director Sue Colverd directed Show of Strength’s acclaimed Fanny and Johnnie Cradock Cook The Great American Songbook, and the script is by Creative Producer Sheila Hannon.

Join us for lashings of BLOOD, BOOZEANDBUCCANEERS in Bristol docks.

Our walking tour visits a few dockside hostelries along the way, with new revelations about Bristol born Blackbeard that will change your view of pirates forever.

The real Blackbeard couldn’t have been more different from your average, rum soaked TREASUREISLAND pirate. So many voyages began in Bristol: even Long John Silver sailed to TREASUREISLAND from Bristol docks. And by the end of our tour you should be able to separate the fact from the fiction — just in time for the 300th anniversary of Blackbeard’s death, later this year.

Meet at The Golden Guinea in Redcliffe, finishing near The Centre. Cost: £10, advance booking only, buy your own drinks.Lasts: 2 – 2 ½ hoursDates & Times: it’s proving popular so we keep adding more. And the 300th anniversary is coming up, so check the booking site (below) for the latest dates.

An extraordinary walking tour revealing Bath’s best kept secret: Mary Shelley wrote much of FRANKENSTEIN in Bath. Secrets and lies, suicides, concealed births, ruined reputations and false identities – walk in Mary Shelley’s footsteps as she wrote her gothic masterpiece in the autumn/winter of 1816/17.

FRANKENSTEIN IN BATH takes you where she lived, where she wrote, and where she kept her dark secrets – as a chain of real life disasters unfolded around her.

To mark the 200th anniversary of FRANKENSTEIN’s publication, there’s now a plaque to Mary Shelley in Bath – included in the tour.

Join us at The Ropewalk on Bedminster Parade and visit a few more pubs along the way, all with fascinating tales to tell – including the gruesome fate of John Horwood; the man eaten by a lion; and Bedminster’s own Romeo and Juliet.

Our last walking tour, FRANKENSTEIN IN BATH, won Best Live Performance at 2017’s Creative Bath Awards. All you need to know is here, so book for this one now, it’s selling fast: buy tickets »

Theatre Bath: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is an enthralling story, well told and meticulously researched, with many newly-discovered facts… …You will be entertained, enlightened and horrified in equal measure. Fascinating. Read the full review »

Bath Newseum:

Tragedy and triumph, romance and despair are all woven into a street performance that was both informative and – please forgive the pun – even shocking in its revelations. Read the full review »

Fanny Cradock was an innovator: blue hard-boiled eggs and green mashed potato to name but two. If you’d like to know a bit more about her cooking here’s a few of her recipes, starting with the famous Prawn Cocktail…